Winter makes me think of root veggies: butternut squash, carrots, sweet potato, parsnips, suede, celeriac. It’s the time of year I want to turn my oven on and fill up the whole house with the warmth and toasty smell as the vegetables caramelize slowly. However, roasting veggies can take way too long when I get home from work, hungry, tired, and ready for something to be in my belly. This root veggie stew fits the bill. It’s warm, hearty, and can be made in a crockpot! Yay! Plus, all the root veggies are a dense source of carbohydrates and are prime recovery meal material (just make sure you add some protein).

I adapted this recipe from Sara Britton’s blog My New Roots. Her recipes are inspiring, and her photography is beautiful. While she is not Whole30, many of her recipes are easily adaptable!

Root Veggie Stew:

Makes about 5 large servings

What you will need:

Crockpot

Frying pan

spatula

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato, sliced

1 suede, peeled and sliced

2 parsnips, peeled and sliced

4 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 onion, sliced

1 can tomatoes (14 0z.)

4 gloves garlic, diced

2 cm ginger, skinned and diced

1 can Aroy-D coconut milk (14 oz.)

2 cups homemade bone broth, I used chicken since it was in the freezer. (you can use vegetable broth if making this vegetarian)

1 1/2 teapoons cumin

1/2 teaspoon of each of the following spices: allspice, cayenne, cinnamon, nutmeg and celery seeds

1/4 tea of each of the following spices: clove and tumeric

Coconut oil for sauteing

Salt and pepper to taste

Just a couple o'spices....

Methodology:

Melt coconut oil in the frying pan on a high heat, add the onion and sautee on a medium/high heat for 5 minutes. Make sure that all of your spices are measured out and ready. Turn the heat back up to high, and add a little bit more oil to the pan if it looks a little dry. Add spices and sautee on high for less than one minute. Remove the pan from the heat and toss onions in the spices. Be ready to act FAST during this stage, sauteing the spices brings out a deeper flavor, but it is also really easy to burn them!

mmmm onions

Let the crock pot heat up while the onions are softening. Add chicken stock and coconut milk, then toss in the soften onion and spice mix. Slowly mix in all of the vegetables, then add salt and pepper to taste. Cook on high for 2 hours. You could also throw everything into a pressure cooker for about a 1/2 hour, not sure on the exact timing since I haven’t made it this way, but it would work!

Ready, set, wait!

This has a tasty curry-like flavor that I’ve been enjoying for lunch all week! I’ve been serving it with roasted chicken thighs after my workout. It’s so delicious I’ve been sneaking bits from the fridge, stone cold! Next time I make this I will definitely take a photo, I just failed at that this time!